Just over 100K sign up for Obamacare

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 11, 2013 computer frame grab, the HealthCare.gov website is displayed. The model whose face appeared on the much-maligned Obama health care website says she felt intimidated by harsh public criticism of the program. The woman, who identified herself only as "Adriana" in an interview with ABC News, says she was never paid for appearing on the website's home page. (AP Photo/HealthCare.gov)
The Associated Press

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 11, 2013 computer frame grab, the HealthCare.gov website is displayed. The model whose face appeared on the much-maligned Obama health care website says she felt intimidated by harsh public criticism of the program. The woman, who identified herself only as "Adriana" in an interview with ABC News, says she was never paid for appearing on the website's home page. (AP Photo/HealthCare.gov)

Republicans, meanwhile, are holding hearings to keep the overhaul's problems in the spotlight ahead of an election year.

"It's kind of interesting to see as Obamacare implodes how everybody's running for cover," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, "Obviously, panic has set in on the other side."

The administration has staked its credibility on turning the website around by the end of this month. From the president on down, officials have said that HealthCare.gov will be running smoothly for the vast majority of users by Nov. 30. They have not specified what "running smoothly" means.

The day was another blow for the administration and its supporters in Congress, who had been counting on Obamacare as a neutral if not winning issue in next year's midterm elections.

Three more swing state Senate Democrats seeking re-election in 2014 signed onto legislation drafted by Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to ensure that anyone liking their current coverage would be able to keep it, an attempt to resolve the issue of cancellations.

In the House, meanwhile, majority Republicans set a vote for Friday on legislation to permit insurance companies to continue selling existing policies that have been ordered scrapped because they fall short of coverage standards in the law.

On daily media calls, Health and Human Services department officials have described a situation where problems get fixed and then new issues crop up as consumers are able to venture further into the website. It's a bit like traffic heading back to a city late on a summer Sunday: You get past one jam, and odds are you run into another.

There was a hopeful sign this Tuesday when Julie Bataille, HHS communications director for the rollout, said that 275,000 people who got hung up in the early days are being invited back to try to complete their applications. The administration is sending the email invitations in batches, so as not to risk any disruptions. White House chief technology officer Todd Park told Congress on Wednesday that system response times are much faster, and error rates have plunged.

But other signals have raised questions. In a blog post on Saturday, Bataille quoted chief White House troubleshooter Jeff Zients as saying improvements would continue in "December, January, February — just like you do with any website."

Asked whether the Nov. 30 target was still achievable, Bataille said on Tuesday, "I want to be clear that our plan remains the same. We are on a path to make improvements week by week so that by the end of November, the site will be working for the vast majority of users."

It's unlikely that Congress will let the website repairs flounder much beyond Nov. 30. Millions of lawmakers' constituents who are losing current individual policies would have to select new plans by Dec. 15 to avoid a break in coverage.

The main federal website is central because other enrollment routes, from call centers to counselors to paper applications received by mail, all depend on having that access.